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Category Archives: Predictive Maintenance

I keep getting updates on new products used in the maintenance field through various online subscriptions.

Here is a link that shows the us of Ultrasound devices in the condition based maintenance strategy. I am not trying to sell the product, but am just trying to propagate the techniques involved. Please connect to the link given below and learn more.

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I have seen people getting jittery when confronted with the term Reliability Centred Maintenance or RCM. The management jargon related to RCM makes it virtually difficult for the layman to understand the concept to its practical applications.

While operating gas turbine propelled ships in the Indian Navy, we had a few simple methods to listen to running machinery through rudimentary mechanical stethoscope – a long thin rigid copper tube with a brass disc attached. This was in addition to the more sophisticated on-line vibration measurement equipment, recording the vibration signature continuously. This data used to be periodically analysed to get the vibration signature. At that time, the recording was being done on board, but the data analysis was done by specialists sitting in their labs and we used to get reports on the health of the equipment on a monthly basis.

In one of my earlier posts, I had mentioned a “Look, Listen, Feel” strategy which could be the basic condition monitoring technique. I strongly feel that If Looking, Listening and Feeling are made integral parts of regular visits to the equipment, it forms a practical method in improving reliability of equipment and systems.

Another management jargon that has caught on is “Autonomous Management”. This talks of the equipment and system operators joining hands with the maintenance personnel and getting cross trained with each other’s functions. The operators will be made responsible for the first line maintenance of the equipment or systems that they are in charge of and the maintainers will be trained in basic operations of the same equipment or system. This has the following advantages:

Improved feeling of ownership among both groups – operators and maintainers

Both the groups understand the equipment or system operations and the nuances of reliable operations

Flexibility in operations and maintenance – Who to do what, when, where?

We all wish that the equipment and systems that we operate would work for ever, efficiently, effectively and productively. Though the reliability factor gets embedded at the design stage itself, there are “Ifs and buts” that get into the operation. With the current corporates culture tends to move towards “No defects”, reliability in operations becomes important.

All the maintenance effort is focused to this end, but in real life, failures do occur and do recur too. This is where the reliability study will help. Root cause analysis is a tool to understand the most likely cause for a specific failure and implement processes and procedures to avoid recurrence.

We all would have done this process mechanically, informally many times. Making such a study formal helps in making systemic corrections.

predictive maintenance is one area that needs no introduction. Combination of techniques and tools available currently makes this a very competitive process. With this process, we can determine when to do any maintenance. Yes, preventive maintenance processes also will be followed, but instead of doing them mechanically as per a time schedule, it gets done when it is required to be done.

In most cases, the buffer time provided for time based preventive maintenance schedules is too much and we end up over-maintaining the equipment causing the following: